The present invention relates to a vehicle airbag apparatus that deploys and inflates the bag body of the airbag with inflation gas when an impact is applied to the vehicle, such as an automobile, from the front side, for example, to protect an occupant sitting in a front seat from the impact.
When an impact is applied to the vehicle from the front side due to a frontal collision, for example, the upper body of the occupant sitting in a vehicle seat acts to lean forward by inertia. In such an incident, a vehicle airbag apparatus is useful that deploys and inflates the bag body of the airbag in front of the occupant to protect the occupant from the impact (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-254500, for example).
The vehicle airbag apparatus includes an airbag and an inflator (a gas generator). In the vehicle airbag apparatus that protects an occupant sitting in a front seat from an impact, the bag body of the airbag is folded and installed, together with the inflator, in the storage section of the instrument panel located in front of the front seat.
When an impact is applied to the vehicle from the front side, the inflator of the vehicle airbag apparatus feeds inflation gas to the bag body. The inflation gas causes the bag body to exit the instrument panel, with a part of the bag body remaining within the storage section, and deploys and inflates the bag body rearward. The bag body receives the body of the occupant, which acts to lean forward, and protects the occupant from the impact while being supported by (in contact with) the instrument panel.
Conventional vehicle airbag apparatuses, including the apparatus of the above-described publication, are designed based on the assumption that the surface of the instrument panel that supports the bag body extends along the vehicle width direction. Different positions in the vehicle width direction of this surface are all located at the same position in the front-rear direction. This allows the bag body to receive the occupant while being supported by the instrument panel in front of the occupant.
However, when a conventional vehicle airbag apparatus, including the apparatus of the above-described publication, is installed in an instrument panel whose surface for supporting the bag body extends obliquely to the vehicle width direction, the following problem may occur. As shown in FIG. 15, a bag body 102 exits a storage section 101 and is supported by an oblique section 103a of an instrument panel 103 that is oblique to the vehicle width direction. This support causes the bag body 102 to be deployed and inflated obliquely to the front-rear direction. The rear end of the bag body 102 is therefore misaligned from the front of the occupant P1 in the vehicle width direction. This may prevent the bag body 102 from properly receiving the occupant P1.